Vanessa Williams reveals effects of childhood molestation

Shaftstar Vanessa Williams recently revealed during an episode of Oprah’s Master Class on Oprah‘s OWN television network that she was molested as a child by an 18-year-old woman. The molester is described by Vanessa as “one of the cool girls” – the daughter of a family friend. Vanessa was 10 when the molestation occurred and on summer vacation in California with her family. She says of her molester, “One night she came into the room where my friend and I were sleeping. She told me to lie down on the floor. And she took my bottoms off and she said, ‘Be quiet,’ and she went down on me.” She added, “And at 10 years old, I had no idea what it was, but I knew it felt good, and I knew I shouldn’t be saying anything, and I didn’t tell anyone.”

Now 51, Vanessa looks back on how the incident affected her as a teenager. “It awakens your sexuality at an age where it shouldn’t be awakened. Had that not happened in my life and had I had an opportunity to have a normal courtship with a boyfriend at 16 or whatever… there wouldn’t have been that shame that was always haunting me. It made me more sexually promiscuous and more sexually curious at a younger age than I should have been.”

Her 2012 memoir You Have No Idea mentions her childhood molestation, as well as an abortion she had as a teenager and the nude photo scandal that cost her the Miss America title. ~Andrea Hodgins